Institute of Transportation, MOTC

       Port risk management has drawn tremendous attention in part because of several recent severe accidents in ports, and in part due to the focus on safety as a key element in sustainable maritime transportation. Moreover, there are relatively few studies on port risk, and quantitative assessment models for port risk have not been fully developed yet. Therefore, this research systematically partitioned the port area by maritime container operation processes into four sequential parts: loading and unloading area of the container at the dock, container transportation from the dock to the storage yard, the storage area of the container yard, and the gate area of container terminal. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and Quantitative risk analysis models were developed for each part to calculate port accident/incident risk. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to assess the risk of each area and each type of port accidents, and the uncertainty of the risks was discussed. This research used data from Port of Keelung, one of international ports in Taiwan, to demonstrate the risk analysis method.
         According to the model results, it is necessary to improve the container storage safety and prevent the risk of equipment-caused failures in the storage area of the container yard, as well as the risks of accidents on the receiving route for import containers. This study also provides a standardized accident record form, in order to increase the reliability of data and quantitative risk analysis in the future. The results of this study will provide port operators useful suggestions for formulating port risk control strategies, thereby reducing the risk of the operation process of port containers, and improving port safety.